In football (soccer), a transfer is the action taken whenever a player moves between clubs. It refers to the transferring of a players registration from one club to another. In general the players can only be transferred during a transfer window and according to the rules set by a governing body.

Method

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When a footballer is under contract with a club, he can only leave if the club agrees to terminate this contract. As a way of compensation, the club to whom the player is transferring will usually pay a capital sum. This is known as the 'transfer fee'. As part of the transfer deal, a proportion of the fee may go to the player himself and any agents involved in the deal. Again, the exact percentage is subject to the regulations of the relevant governing body.

Historically transfer fees were paid even when the player was out of contract, but since the Bosman ruling, this is no longer the case. This ruling occurred when the European Union declared that the practice of demanding a fee for players out of contract was illegal. However, in order to secure an income for smaller clubs, UEFA regulations still state that a fee must be paid for players under the age of 23. This may be set by a tribunal if it cannot be agreed upon between the two clubs.

Transfers may also involve a part-exchange, in which some or all of the capital fee is paid for by trading another player from the signing club to the selling club. Other methods of paying a transfer fee include:

• Clauses depending on the player's success at the signing club (e.g. an extra fee if the player scores a total of 20 goals in his first season, or makes a given number of appearances)
• Clauses depending on the signing club's success following the transfer
• Clauses allowing the selling club to profit from any future transfers of the player
• Friendly matches between the two teams, in which the selling club receives all the gate receipts
• The introduction of other reciprocal arrangements e.g. the signing club may agree to aid the selling club by the improvement of training facilities, or sharing of resources and coaches

Additionally, a single fee may be used to buy the registration of many players at once.

Highest transfer fees

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The following table shows the highest transfer fees ever paid in British Pounds. Using a different currency (the Euro being the most relevant) produces a slightly different list due to exchange rate fluctuations. The great majority of transfer fees over £10 million have been paid by clubs in England, Italy or Spain.

European football experienced a "transfer bubble" between circa 1999 and 2002, and fees then fell away significantly. The most expensive transfer since that time was Chelsea's purchase of Andriy Shevchenko in 2006. The fee was not officially disclosed, but was reported as £30 million by many media outlets, and as slightly more than that by some.

Of the transfers in the list below, Rio Ferdinand's included performance related clauses, and some of the other may have done so. This leads to different figures being given by different sources. Such performance related clauses have become more common since the bursting of the transfer bubble, meaning that it is harder to produce definitive lists of the largest transfer fees than was the case in the past.

Rank	Player	From	To	Transfer Fee (£ millions)	Year
1	Zinedine Zidane		Real Madrid	45.62	2001
2	Luís Figo		Real Madrid	37.0	2001
3	Hernán Crespo		Lazio	35.5	2000
4	Gianluigi Buffon			32.6	2001
5	Christian Vieri	Lazio	Internazionale	32.0	1999
6	Andriy Shevchenko	AC Milan	Chelsea F.C.	30.0	2006
7	Rio Ferdinand	Leeds		29.1	2002
8	Gaizka Mendieta	Valencia	Lazio	29.0	2001
9	Ronaldo	Internazionale	Real Madrid	28.49	2002
10	Juan Sebastián Verón	Lazio		28.1	2001

Source: www.footballtransfers.net. Accessed 1 June 2006, (except for Shevchenko, which is based on multiple media reports of that date).

See also

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• Bosman ruling
• Transfer Market
• Free transfer
• List of nationality transfers in football
• British football transfer record

External links

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• Footballtransfers.net
• Transfer regulations of FIFA (PDF)

Football (soccer) terminology | Football (soccer) records and statistics

Transfer